Lawyer challenging credibility of ex-Portales cop

As embattled Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan heads to trial on felony charges, his attorneys battled prosecutors over discovery issues Friday.

Lujan, whose trial is scheduled to start Tuesday in Rio Arriba County, is charged with aiding a felon and bribing a witness in a 2017 case in which he is accused of helping former Española City Councilor Phillip Chacon evade police and telling a deputy who witnessed some of those actions not to tell anyone.

At issue Friday was whether former Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Deputy Cody Lattin, the state's key witness, misrepresented his military service, which might call his credibility into question, defense lawyer Jason Bowles said.

Lattin is a U.S. Army veteran who served as a deputy for Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties and as a police officer for Portales.

Bowles, who filed a subpoena for Lattin's records, said they are vital to the defense's case.

If District Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood allows the documents to be entered into the record, Bowles may question Lattin on the stand about his background. He said he does not expect the court to disclose those documents to the public.

Attorneys for the cities of Española and Portales countered that personnel records are generally exempt from any public records request.

"We don't release (personnel) documents. We don't release information," attorney Stephen Doerr, who represents the city of Portales, told the judge Friday.

"Even a subpoena, we don't believe, can require us to release certain documents."

Both Doerr and Jared Najjar, who represents Española, said they are not parties in the case against Lujan and the documents in question have no relevance.

Ellenwood said Lattin's "credibility is absolutely an issue. That's the concern I have."

She ordered Doerr and Najjar to deliver Lattin's personnel records to her Friday afternoon. She said she would make a decision on the matter by Tuesday, which is when jury selection for the trial is scheduled to begin at the Rio Arriba County Courthouse.

Lattin is expected to testify Wednesday, prosecutor Andrea Reeb of Clovis told Ellenwood.

Bowles also told Ellenwood that Reeb interfered when his investigators tried to interview Lattin on Friday morning.

Reeb said she was simply keeping Lattin from responding to questions that might be related to the pretrial hearing, before the judge made a ruling regarding the personnel records.

Ellenwood told Bowles she would give his team more time to interview Lattin before he testifies at trial.

Lujan, 60, remains sheriff but has lost his authority to carry a gun, drive a police vehicle or make arrests.

He is connected to another criminal case involving Chacon, who recently pleaded guilty to federal charges of possessing a stolen firearm in relation to a March 2020 incident.

In that incident, police arrived at his home to execute a search warrant on an RV on his property. Chacon was accused of stabbing a man he allowed to stay on his property.

Lujan was also charged in that case after prosecutors say he showed up to Chacon's house drunk and tried to take over the SWAT operation from local officers and New Mexico State Police.

Over the past two decades, Lujan has been named a defendant in a number of lawsuits, including some accusing him of civil rights violations, sexual harassment and racism.

During Friday's hearing, Ellenwood said there has been "a tremendous amount of media coverage for this case, more than I would have expected.

"Have a heads-up on that."